The Marauders' Boggarts as seen by Lily Evans
by TimeShard13
Summary: It's the Marauders' sixth year at Hogwarts and in DADA they must face their greatest fears.  And Lily might just see the four troublemakers in a new light. The bogarts of James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew.


Lily Evans stood in the back of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom with all the other sixth year Gryffindors. Their professor had just finished a quick review on the _riddikulus_ spell, they had been studying boggarts for the past week, and now they had to face one for real. Normally Lily would have been in the front of the line, eager to try out a new spell, but the idea of the entire class seeing her worst fear didn't sound so appealing.

For once, instead of focusing on the lesson at hand, Lily found herself rather distracted by four certain someones standing right in front of her. Now Lily would rather be caught dead than be found staring at the Marauders. They were notoriously Hogwart's four worst troublemakers, headed up by the one and only James Potter who had been the bane of Lily's existence for the better part of six years now. He and his insufferable friend Sirius Black were professional disrupters of the peace and even quiet Remus Lupin was known to be the mastermind behind many of their pranks. And while Lily had no personal grudge against Lupin and Pettigrew, she most certainly did against Potter and Black. Both were generally regarded as two of the most popular boys in school and most people, students and teachers alike, seemed to be blind to their faults. Lily couldn't stand them. They were lazy, arrogant, shallow, and worst of all bullies. They knew they had everything and weren't afraid to show it.

So the fact that the four boys were standing obediently in line uttering nothing more than hushed whispers had Lily very suspicious. She moved to better see them, intending to stop whatever ridiculous plot they were planning before it started. Looking at them closer, however, Lily became very confused. Peter Pettigrew look down right terrified, though that was nothing new, and if Remus looked anxious, it was only to be expected with the upcoming task. No, it was Potter's nervous expression and Black's blank face that caused her alarm. In all the years she had known the pair, never had she seen either of them remotely scared of anything.

If Lily was honest with herself, she would admit that she had never gone out of her way to better get to know the boys. She had been fully confident that she had known everything worth knowing, but now, as she contemplated what their boggarts could possibly be, she realized she really knew next to nothing about any of them.

After a Hufflepuff girl turned a large snake into a rather impressive balloon animal, it was Pettigrew's turn, but the poor boy didn't look like he would be stepping forward anytime soon. Potter, the boy who had been stalking Lily since first year, who she had been sure cared only for his own popularity, whispered quiet encouragement in the scared boy's ears before giving him a gently nudge forward. Lily had to admit, she was a bit surprised by their support. She had originally assumed, like most of the school, that Potter and Black only kept Peter around because he hero worshipped the two, but now it looked like they might actually care for the smaller boy.

Pettigrew reluctantly drew his wand and stepped up to the truck containing the boggart hesitantly. To everyone's surprise, however, when the balloon animal disappeared the classroom remained distinctly empty. After a few moments, Potter had regained some of his bravado and let out a loud laugh.

"Way to go Pete, looks like you're not afraid of anything!"

The poor boy looked anything but reassured. In fact, Lily thought he looked like he might be sick. He had turn pale and he kept looking anxiously back over his shoulder as if to make sure his friends were still there. As Potter and Black exchanged quips, Lily realized that 'nothing' was exactly what Pettigrew was afraid of. He was a lonely boy who saw himself as less important than the friends he practically worshipped. He feared being left alone, and his best friends didn't even seem to recognize this. Lily felt a pang of pity for the boy.

It was Remus who finally stepped forward to end Pettigrew's dilemma, gently pushing the smaller boy towards the group of finished students. Remus himself just looked resigned. Lily figured he must know exactly what shape the boggart was going to take. She, on the other hand, was actually quite curious. Lily had always liked Remus, he made for an excellent studying partner even if he could stand to have a better choice in friends, but she had no idea what the reserved boy might be afraid of. When his boggart did appear, several students let out small gasps, as did Lily herself. A large, rickety, wooden door was now standing in the center of the room, covered in three distinctly human shaped spatters of blood.

Whatever Remus' boggart was, it was something extremely personal. Lily could think of no other explanation for it. As far as doors went, this certainly was a frightening one, but Lily couldn't see why it would be someone's worst fear. Turning to look at Remus' three friends, though, made it clear that there was more to it than that. All previous joking had vanished as Potter and Black were trying to subtly glance around the room at the other students' reactions. When no one said anything, the pair looked almost relieved, though for the life of her Lily didn't know why.

The dark monstrosity was was deftly turned into something that looked like a very large bar of chocolate, and Remus retreated to the back of the classroom to stand beside Pettigrew. Lily noticed that they had both made sure to find a spot where they could clearly watch their remaining two friends, who now seemed to be squabbling over who was to go next. Potter said something Lily couldn't hear, but whatever it was, Black didn't seem to agree, however he stepped forward anyway.

Lily was pretty sure the entire class had froze, but maybe not. She couldn't tear her gaze from Sirius Black's boggart. She hadn't thought it would be able to make something quite so, intricate. Though that probably wasn't the best word for it. The figure standing before them, clad in a black cloak and white mask, could very well have represented any number of fears, if it weren't for the dark mark prominently displayed on its left forearm. Lily didn't know much about the self proclaimed Dark Lord and his followers, not many did as of yet, but she had read about the strange disappearances and murders in muggle and wizarding newspapers alike. She knew a death eater when she saw one and so did the other students. What she didn't know, was why a boy from one of the oldest, purest, and richest families should have any reason to fear death eaters as much as he clearly did. She had a sneaking suspicion that Sirius saw more in the man in front of him than she did though. For a long moment she was almost afraid the Black boy wouldn't move at all. When he did, it wasn't with his usual confidence.

"R-riddikulus!" Black's words hardly sounded louder than a whisper and the dark figure merely took a step forward. He slowly raised his hands to his hood, slowly pulling it back to reveal long black hair. Hair, which Lily realized with a shiver, looked exactly like Sirius Black's own. In fact, the height and stature of the two boy's was almost identical.

"Sirius!" Potter's harsh whisper startled Lily and she flinched slightly, though it was nothing compared to the jump Black himself gave.

Before the figure could remove the mask as well, Black had said the spell, practically shouting this time. To Lily's confusion, not much changed. The figure became a haughty looking woman, stumbling around on high heels and frantically trying to tug the mask off over her obnoxiously poofed hair. Black, however, seemed to find this absolutely hilarious and went to stand beside Remus practically choking.

Potter looked shaken up enough for the two of them. Lily had always lumped the two boys together because they were so alike. Both in personality and in background, being purebloods. But she wasn't oblivious, especially not with what appeared to be a war on the way. She knew the Potters were what people impolitely referred to as 'blood traitor' while the Black were infamously known for dabbling in the darker of magics. She had just never thought about how that affected the friendship of the two boys. If the figure had indeed been Sirius himself, then the Black heir was significantly more influenced by his family than she, or Potter judging by his look, had ever thought.

Her attention was abruptly called to Potter himself as he stepped forward with a flourish and a bow. Lily frowned, but couldn't deny her curiosity to find out more about the boy who had declared his love for her no less than ten times so far that week.

Laying sprawled on the ground was an older couple, a man and a woman. Potter flinched but didn't seem surprised. "Riddikulus!"

Now Sirius Black was crumpled on the ground.

"Riddikulus!"

Remus Lupin

"Riddikulus!"

Peter Pettigrew

"Riddikulus!"

This time it was a large stage. Half of the class let out uncomfortable laughs, thinking that that was the end of it, which it was due to their laughing. But Lily had been staring at Potter the whole time and by the look on his face he most certainly did not find a dead deer funny. He looked like he wanted to run. Lily had thought Potter would be afraid of snakes or spiders or something equally simple, but he wasn't. He feared the deaths of his friends and family. Perhaps there really was more to James than she had given him credit for. Everyone else certainly thought highly of him, maybe she had been too quick to judge.

"Luck Evans." His statement brought Lily's focus back to the class. She sighed, wishing she had some idea of what her fear would be before she actually stepped forward, but her thoughts were distracted with the four boys who had gone before her.


End file.
